Lessons from Selma: Then and Now

Join us at the Divinity School as we commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights march from Selma to Montgomery.

Monday, March 2, 2015 | 6pm

Swift Lecture Hall (3rd floor) | Reception to follow

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Our panel discussion will include emeriti faculty who participated in the march as well as historians who will provide context for this seminal event in the fight to ensure voting rights for all. The conversation will focus on lessons learned from the organized strategy of the non-violent resistance movement in Selma, and reflect on its relevance given the recent activism in response to events in Ferguson, MO, and Staten Island, NY.

The panel will be moderated by Dwight N. Hopkins, Professor of Theology.

PANEL

Jane Dailey, Associate Professor of American History, the Law School, and the College

caption reads: ON THEIR KNEES. As troopers grip their nightsticks, the marchers drop to their knees. In the earlier march they had asked permission to pray but the request was turned down. This time the troopers said it was all right to pray "if you so desire." These whites, who are predominantly clerymen, had flown to Alabama from all over the U.S. to rally behind Dr. King. King said later "We knew we would not get past the troopers."